That’s the message many in the radio industry are crowing about, as the Internet Advertising Bureau, in partnership with pwc, on Wednesday released the Internet Advertising Revenue Report for the full year of 2022.
In 2022, the digital advertising industry showed resilience in the face of a strained economy, with ad revenues year-over-year securing double digit growth and totaling over $200 billion for the first time.
And, the IAB and pwc note, the industry’s outlook for 2023 will be promising if it can comply with evolving privacy regulations and adapt to growing consumer usage patterns and expectations, such as ad-supported streaming and retail media.
Looking back at 2022, IAB and pwc determined that mobile revenue growth is being driven by digital audio.
“The continued evolution and expansion of digital environments, the increase in consumption of digital audio formats such as podcasts, plus the continued rollout of 5G and its beneficial impact on VR and AR advertising capabilities, are likely to continue to positively impact mobile ad revenues in 2023,” it said, noting the on-demand audio choice rather than streaming of live over-the-air radio.
That said, radio companies are highly active in the podcast space and may wish to continue this activity given the digital ad trends IAB is sensing.
For instance, Search’s revenues increased by 7.8% year-over-year, IAB and pwc report. However its overall market share continues to decrease (a reduction of 1.2 percentage points since 2021), with digital audio and digital video growing at a faster rate.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway for the audio (and Radio) industry is the growth by advertising format seen since 2020.
After record growth in 2021, advertising format growth rates have returned to levels seen previously. Nevertheless, streaming media (digital audio and digital video) continue to outpace other formats in comparative growth. Conversely, social media formats which were growing strongly in 2021, have seen the slowest growth in 2022 at 3.6%.
But, where does internet advertising compare with music, radio and podcasts, or TV advertising? It’s far ahead.
